"I suspect that whatever cannot be said clearly is probably not being thought clearly either" --- Peter Singer. (Mea culpa.) See the entry in my Quotes blog.

Saturday, August 16, 2003

I can't express my personal philosophy in five words, the way Chuq can. I like this taoist story, though:

Chuang Tzu with his bamboo pole was fishing in Pu river. The Prince of Chu sent two-vice-chancellors with a formal document:
"We hereby appoint you Prime Minister".

Chuang Tzu held his bamboo pole. Still watching the Pu river, he said:
"I am told there is a sacred tortoise, offered and canonized three thousand years ago; venerated by the prince, wrapped in silk, in a precious shrine, on an altar in the Temple.

"What do you think: is it better to give up one's life and leave a sacred shell as an object of cult in a cloud of incense three thousand years, or better to live as a plain turtle dragging its tail in the mud?"

"For the turtle", said the vice-chancellor, "better to live and drag its tail in the mud!"